


razor sharp

by butbythegrace



Series: hot blooded [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha Ed, Alpha Roy, Alpha/Alpha, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Biting, Blood, Bonding, Dominance, Ed is still 17, Established Relationship, M/M, Misunderstandings, Omegaverse, Purring, Sappy, Sexual Content, Submission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-22 23:09:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21310144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butbythegrace/pseuds/butbythegrace
Summary: Alpha to alpha bites rarely take.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Series: hot blooded [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1077807
Comments: 42
Kudos: 720





	razor sharp

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for such wonderful feedback on part one, your encouragement to continue, and your patience in waiting for part two. It comes with more drama and Feelings™ than the first one did.
> 
> As of right now I don’t have any plans for a third part and will be marking this series as complete, but never say never. ;)

It’s easy to look past the signs at first. Ed remains home for nearly two months after his rut and his proximity makes it difficult to discern them as anything out of the ordinary.

But when Ed leaves on his next mission, the façade crumbles. It’s as clear as day.

It certainly explains Roy’s intoxicated, blissed-out, purring response and that every day without Ed is driving him further into some sort of profound sadness he has never experienced. The feeling of being incomplete. Broken. Missing a piece of his very being. Even Ed’s voice over the phone can barely soothe the ache.

The most telling evidence is that he can never really get Ed’s scent to go away. It’s both a blessing and a curse. When the hole in his chest feels like it will swallow everything, Ed’s scent grounds him and keeps him from slipping into the dark. But even just a touch to something that carries it causes it to spread over his body like wildfire. Removing it from the house is a lengthy but simple process. Removing it from his body every single day is a special kind of hell.

And every time he steps out of the shower and looks in the mirror, Roy can’t help but think he’s facing the closest an alpha can get to “oh my god I’m pregnant”.

It’s been two months, two weeks, and six days. The longest two months, two weeks, and six days of Roy’s life. It was only supposed to be two months, two weeks, and two days, but Ed made a last-minute, no-context detour to Resembool for what must have been an automail repair. Roy nearly had a breakdown after receiving news of his delay, and the extra four days had passed so syrupy slow he’d nearly prayed for death.

Somehow his overly dramatic, hormonal, dumb alpha ass had survived, and finally, _finally_ the wait is coming to an end. It’s nearing three in the afternoon on the day Ed is due home, but he hasn’t been able to find it within himself to part with his nest of pillows and blankets and clothes Ed had been left behind. Ed’s scent should have faded from their room some time ago, but in the face of his absence Roy’s body is so sensitive to it, so desperate for it, soaking it up like a sponge and spreading their mixed fingerprint wherever he goes.

He closes his eyes and sighs, burrowing deeper into his nest, rubbing his cheek across the fabric. The black jacket isn’t the red coat he longs to wrap himself in, but it soothes him just the same. It’s the last thing in his possession that strongly smells of Ed. He’d carefully cycled through Ed’s clothes and everything else has since been laundered. The scent his own body creates is enough to keep him going, but not nearly as satiating as something scented straight from the source. If he presses his face into the jacket and zones out he can almost pretend Ed is here, but where his body thrives with Ed’s presence, it withers without, and no amount of scented clothing or meticulously arranged bedding can mend the effects of withdrawal.

He was naïve to think it would get easier, or that he would be able to hide it. At first his team needled him for acting like a lovesick adolescent in Ed’s absence, but the never-ending depth of this depression has begun to worry them. Even Hawkeye – concerned, but so suspicious Roy is starting to worry she knows his secret – insisted he have the day off. And while he’s grateful to have been able to sprawl in Ed’s likeness for an entire day, it’s only put off the inevitable.

The fact that Ed will be home in less than two hours is the only thing that can finally motivate him to move. With one last deep inhale and sigh, dread blooming in his chest, Roy pushes himself to his elbows, then knees, and drags himself out of his nest.

He leaves his clothes next to the bed and makes his naked way down the hall to the guest bath. As he enters the shower he takes care to touch as few things as possible. His body revolts at the descenting wash. It prickles like a million tiny needles and brings tears to his eyes and he _hates_ it, he hates it so _much, _not only for the physical pain it brings but also for the mental anguish of removing his mate's scent. The urge to leap out of the shower and burrow back into his nest until Ed comes home is so strong he has to sit down right there under the spray and remind himself that if he gives in, he’ll just have to start all over.

When he’s finished staving off yet another nervous breakdown and pulled himself to his feet, he steps out of the shower and dries off, body raw and aching, and swipes the towel across the steamy mirror. He looks exhausted and empty.

He tilts his head to the side, exposing the junction of his shoulder and neck, and traces his finger over the dark pink scars dotting his skin in the likeness of Edward Elric’s teeth.

_It’ll be gone by the time you get back_ he’d reassured Ed.

_Alpha to alpha bites rarely take._

But here it remains, edging on four months old, exhibiting all the signs of a true bond bite and putting him through an absolutely hellish bout of mate withdrawal.

A fresh wave of anxiety crashes over the wall of denial he’s been hiding behind.

Because Ed still doesn’t know. And Roy still has no idea how he’s going to tell him.

He wipes down every surface in the bathroom his unwashed body touched. He isn’t nearly as sensitive to small patches of residual scent as he had been at first, but it’s habit now, and he’s better off safe than sorry. He shaves and brushes his teeth while doing his best to not look away from his eyes, even though it’s just as bad as looking at the mark because they’re both screaming for Ed’s presence.

He dresses in the guest room. It’s where he’s been keeping his clean clothes because their room is his sanctuary, the only part of the house he didn’t dare scrub clean of Ed’s scent.

_Their_ room. Even though Ed does not officially live here, Roy’s animal brain has begun referring to everything in the house as theirs.

He eyes the bite mark in the bedroom mirror once more before he buttons his collar.

He paces downstairs for quite some time. He’s not used to feeling this way, like some sort of jittery, nervous creature, like a prey animal approaching imminent doom. The feeling rushes down his neck and spine like a hot river of magma, and it makes him want to simultaneously scream in irritation and sob in agony. Fucking mood swings. Another one of withdrawal’s many wonderful gifts.

He manages to settle at the edge of the sofa, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. The cold of the leather upholstery seeps through his clothes and soothes him.

It’s not that the mark is upsetting to _him_. It had been a shock when he’d finally seen it for what it is, had instilled a moment of panic quite like slipping on a patch of ice; the blindsiding moment of shock, the sickening feeling of falling, and the crash.

But the aftermath wasn’t how he thought it would be. He’s fine with it. He really, truly is. He probably ought to be shaken to his core that something of this magnitude has affected his life and attached it so closely to another’s, but even though being bonded to Ed is unexpected, it isn’t unwelcome. Roy has been stuck on him for some time now and the mark just serves to both solidify and exacerbate that fact.

But the issue is that he can’t with certainty same the same for Ed, who is freshly presented, two days shy of his eighteenth birthday, and in his first serious relationship. He still has his entire life ahead of him, and Roy - as much as he loves him - doesn’t want to hold him back, especially out of a sense of obligation, which is very much a possibility. Ed is a walking current of guilt and there’s a chance he’s going to shoulder this pretty hard and blame himself.

But he’s the furthest from blame. He’d been in rut, and not just _a_ rut, but his very first. Roy had been the coherent one. The older, more experienced one. It was incredible Ed had managed the coherency to ask permission to bite him at all, and he hadn’t been in any shape to refuse his instincts at Roy’s encouragement. Ed had trusted him, and Roy shouldn’t have let this happen.

He covers his face with his hands.

There’s also the chance that Ed is going to know this and be absolutely furious. His worst fear is that Ed will be through and done with him. And then what?

If mate withdrawal is this horrible, he doesn’t want to consider what mate rejection would be like – to have to strip their- fuck. _His _room of Ed’s presence, to wait months for the depression to fade, even longer for the bond mark to do the same. Just the thought of it makes his body heavy and his chest ache and if his world is dull now he can’t even begin to comprehend what it would be like with the light out for good.

He really couldn’t have fucked up any more severely.

Roy runs his hands through his hair, again and again, and considers how, exactly, he’s going to broach the subject. He’s going to ruin Ed’s homecoming, and it doesn’t help that Ed’s birthday is in two days because he’s going to ruin that, too.

Happy birthday, you marked me!

Happy birthday, I’m an impulsive idiot!

Surprise, I’m stuck to you for the foreseeable future!

Surprise, I-

“GOTCHYA!”

The shout and accompanying blur leaping from the kitchen doorway startles Roy so badly he slips from his precarious seat at the edge of the couch and knocks his head on the coffee table on the way down. His gloves aren’t anywhere near and everything is out of focus but poising to snap and snarling are both reflexes he has no control over. He doesn’t know what to expect from an assailant with that sort of entrance, but luckily it isn’t long before he finds out, Ed’s worried face coming into focus over his own.

“Oh shit I’m so fucking sorry-”

Roy drops the hand that was ready to do nothing more than snap – and what a way to go that would have been if he’d actually been under attack, snapping his bare fingers at a murderer, as if to just confirm ‘yep, you got me!’ Fucking _embarrassing._

“What the hell, Ed?!” he shouts, and then the wave of pain hits. He winces and presses the heel of his palm to his head. The world teeters a bit, and he squeezes his eyes shut.

“Are you okay?” Ed asks

Roy pulls his hand away to check for blood, and finding none, presses it back to the spot. “I’d be a slight bit more okay if I hadn’t just been ambushed in my own home, by my own m- partner,” he corrects, praying Ed hadn’t noticed, the nearly detrimental slip sobering him up a bit. “But I think I’ll manage.”

“I am so. Sorry,” Ed repeats.

Roy takes some time to just breathe and wait for the pounding in his head to ease. When he looks up a few minutes later, Ed is still hovering over him, his hands gathered under his chin, and for some reason he looks even more confused than Roy feels.

“What on earth were you doing?” Roy asks.

“Trying to surprise you?” Ed says, though it comes out sounding more like a question.

"Your reasoning being?"

Ed’s answering grin is sheepish. “Y’just…have been acting so weird, and I called the office earlier and Hawkeye said you’d taken the day, and she was weird too, so I-” He pauses, and looks off to the side. “Might’ve thought you were planning a surprise party,” he finishes in a quick mumble.

Roy, still lying on the floor with his hand pressed to his head, gives him a look of irritated incredulity. No wonder he hadn't heard him come in, the little sneak.

“Not that I wanted one, ‘cause I don’t!” Ed follows up defensively. “That’s why I was going to surprise you first! To make a point.” He considers Roy, still down for the count with a bruised head and ego. “Which is that I’m an idiot, apparently.”

He offers Roy his flesh hand, and without thinking Roy takes it. The bond mark flares to life like a static shock, sending sparks tingling out to his fingertips. He flinches, ripping his hand away to grip his shoulder with a wince.

“Did you hurt your shoulder?” Ed asks, worried and leaning in. “Let me see-”

“NO,” Roy says, a bit too forcefully. Ed stops, confused, and Roy wants to kick himself. “No,” he repeats, more softly. “I’m okay. Just a bit dizzy.”

One hand on the coffee table and the other on the sofa, Roy pushes himself to his feet, and wavers a bit.

“Woah there,” Ed says, steadying Roy with mismatched hands on his hips, and between the head rush of standing and a sudden whiff of Ed’s scent, Roy feels ready to drown. “You sure you’re okay?”

Roy can’t help it. He hasn’t seen Ed in eighty-one days and his bonded instincts outweigh every negative warning his brain gives him. He pulls Ed close and buries his face in his hair.

It’s the worst metaphor his brain can come up with in relation to Ed, but it’s like being brought back to life, like warmth and color bleed back into his body. His heart hurts as if it hadn’t beat properly in months. His lungs fill with Ed, his scent causing a spark at his neck and sending a wave of need through his body with a violent shiver. He’d heard of what it’s like to have someone’s bond bite, but experiencing it is a completely different animal. They’re most sensitive when new or when the receiver and giver have been separated for an extended period, and now he gets to experience both. Goody for him.

The descenting wash is holding down the fort for the time being, masking what Roy is sure is a complete clusterfuck of emotion, but just because he can’t smell it doesn’t mean Ed doesn’t notice. He runs a soothing hand up and down Roy’s back and hums.

“Bad day?” he asks. “Other than the whole attempting to give you a concussion thing. Which I’m a little alarmed you aren’t yelling at me for, by the way.”

Roy closes his eyes and holds Ed a little tighter. “It’s never a good day without you,” he says.

Ed snorts. “You don’t have to charm your way into my pants anymore so you can knock that off whenever.”

“I’ll take that as permission to continue as long as I like.”

“Whatever,” Ed mumbles. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” Roy says. “I just missed you.” Which isn't a lie, but it's not the full truth either, and it's cruel of him. As soon as he leaves the cocoon of this embrace he’ll be pulling the rug out from under Ed’s feet.

“I missed you too,” Ed replies softly. He pulls back just enough to disengage Roy’s face from his shoulder, then slips a hand behind Roy’s head and pulls him down into a kiss that speaks nothing of the softness of his voice but more of every night they’d spent apart. It’s incredible what just Ed’s mouth can make him feel and _oh_, that’s dangerous. Roy’s body is ready to surge in and say fuck it to the lead weight dragging down his conscious, and he’s already toeing the line of giving in.

He pulls back abruptly, Ed chasing his lips, a furrow in his brow when he opens his eyes.

Roy cups his cheek. “You’ve grown,” he says. It should be the perfect distraction, and Ed preens at the acknowledgment.

“Over an inch. Win had to adjust the leg ’cause I was so off-balance,” he says, followed up by a predatory grin, and Roy’s distraction dies a swift death. “But I can do this now.” Ed stands on his toes and leans in to brush his cheek over Roy’s neck. He’s so close to touching the mark that Roy’s knees nearly buckle. Ed’s hands swoop down to steady him again, this time by grabbing his ass, and Roy is hit with another wave of weak-kneed desire.

He realizes he desperately wants to submit to Ed.

“Won’t be long before I can take you standing up,” Ed adds, pressing their hips together with a sinful little sway, making Roy swallow a whine. Presenting has woken this new side of Ed, who has always been demanding in bed but never so assertive on the way there. Each reunion has met with them fucking on the surface nearest to wherever they were when the last of their clothes came off, so it’s to be expected Ed is a little confused when Roy steps back and gently gathers his hands.

It hurts him to do it - his bonded brain screaming that this contact is what he’s needed for months and how _dare_ he ruin it for himself - but there’s no way he can take it under false pretenses, or risk getting too wrapped up in the moment and Ed discovering the mark himself. It wouldn’t be right.

His heart pounds so hard and fast he’s sure Ed can hear it.

Ed stares wide-eyed at his hands in Roy’s, then gives a nervous laugh. “So, uh. I wasn’t wrong about something being weird, huh?”

“We need to talk,” Roy tells him.

Ed takes a deep breath, and nods. “Yeah,” he says, “okay.” Even though he sounds about as okay as Roy feels.

They take a seat on the sofa, the one with Ed’s teeth marks still printed into the back rest from the day he presented. Roy can practically feel them staring him down, judging him for continuing to hide their likeness beneath his collar like a coward. He notices the space Ed purposefully leaves between them. His body pleads with him to close the distance, to let Ed touch the mark, to let Ed touch him _period_, and it’s getting harder and harder to think above the noise.

He presses his fingers to his temples. He is so tired.

“I really don’t know how to say this,” he starts, and stops, because he still really, truly doesn’t have a clue. Build him up? Blurt it out? Take off his sh-

“You’ve found someone else,” Ed says, making Roy’s eyes widen in horror, not only due to the defeated ease with which he says it but because Roy can’t fathom how there ever _could_ be someone else.

“What makes you even _think_ that?”

Ed smiles, the forced kind that doesn't reach his eyes. "The house doesn’t smell like anything. I know I’ve been gone for a while so my scent would be faint but it doesn’t even smell like you. It’s, uh. Why I was so sure when I got in that my theory was correct. You can’t pull off a surprise party with everyone’s scent hanging around. But, well.” He shrugs, slow and helpless. “You don’t even smell like you. Which…doesn’t happen on a day off.”

It’s not just that Ed thinks he removed his scent because someone else’s was on him – which is technically correct, but not in the way Ed assumes - but he also thinks Roy has brought someone else into their home.

Most alphas would take personal offense to a stranger encroaching on their territory, but Ed just rubs his shoulder, eyes averted as if ashamed. “Is- I mean, I know the automail is rough and I’m not the easiest person to deal with-”

“Ed-”

“-and I’m gone a lot, and- if you’ve found someone else-”

“Edward, I have not found someone else,” Roy insists. He never would, never _could_ even if he wanted to and if Ed leaves- if _Ed_ finds someone else and Roy has to see it-

Ed looks at him with sad eyes. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” Roy says carefully. He hadn’t, because Roy had told him to.

“Then- is this too much?” he asks, gesturing between them. “The alpha-alpha thing?”

“No, Ed. Just-” Roy steeples his hands and leans his forehead against them. His heart is racing, and he prays his voice doesn’t give it away. “Please don’t freak out.”

“It freaks me out that you’re telling me not to freak out.” A new sort of fear crosses Ed’s face. “You’re not…sick, or dying, or-”

“_No_, Ed.”

Ed covers his face with his hands and takes a deep, shaky breath. Roy can smell the fear on him and his heart aches for being the cause of it. 

Fucking hell. He can’t keep stringing along the inevitable.

He opts for Option C. He flicks open the first few buttons of his shirt, pulls the collar aside, and with his heart in his throat, waits.

Ed’s hands crawl into his bangs. He doesn’t even try to hide how hard he’s breathing. “Please just fucking tell me what the fuck is wrong because I’m about to fucking-” He finally looks up, and stops. He looks confused at first, and then it clicks.

His eyes widen with his inhale. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Oh fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s- it's-”

“A bond bite, yes.”

Ed’s wide-eyed shock turns to wide-eyed confusion. “But- but I-”

“Was a freshly presented alpha who had a minuscule chance of getting a bite to take at all, let alone on another alpha. Yes.” Roy lets go of his collar. Ed’s eyes linger there.

“But-” Ed’s confusion melts into distress. “You _told_ me to.”

The guilt hits, hard and cold, and Roy lowers his eyes in shame. “I’m so sorry.”

Ed’s hands migrate back to his hair, clutching his bangs. “Fuck, I was so stupid-”

“It’ll fade,” Roy says softly.

“That could take a year. _Years_, Roy.” He sucks in a breath and grabs Roy's knee, his eyes desperately searching Roy's own. “Does anyone else know?” he demands.

Roy shakes his head. Ed’s concern is understandable. Alphas are braggarts, showy by nature. Keeping his secret hasn’t been easy in the least, but he never would have felt right about the team knowing before Ed even did. _Especially_ if it didn’t go well. Which, clearly, it wasn’t.

Ed furiously scrubs at his face. He drops his hands with a laugh, but his eyes have gone glassy. “Go _fucking_ figure,” he says, voice thick and wobbly, "that I’m finally happy for once in my fucking life, so of course this shit has to ruin it.”

The feeling of impending doom pours into Roy’s body and it leaves him shaking. Ed can never, ever be at peace, and now he’s one of the reasons why, and - God - this is it, isn’t it? This is something greater than Ed can handle. It's the beginning of the end. It’s over.

Ed pushes himself to stand and starts to pace, pulling at his hair, a flood of pure anxiety flowing with his scent in waves. "And I knew it," he says miserably. "You said it was okay but I shouldn't have listened. I _knew_ better."

“Ed,” Roy says, the tremble in his own voice threatening to leave him tearful. He wants to reach out, bring Ed back and bring him down and maybe by some miracle bring them both to that moment where everything went so, so wrong because Roy was so, so stupid, and when it comes to Ed he always will be.

"But that's what I do, right?" Ed says. His braid and coat flick dramatically when he turns on his heel, and even in panic he's a gorgeous, tenacious force that Roy never wants to go without. "I always think I'm above the laws of fucking nature and I'm never going to learn and stop fucking shit up, am I? I just- had to go and be a dumbass alpha and do dumb alpha shit!" he cries. "And- and you have every right to feel the way you do, I don't blame you, I swear-”

Roy’s panic comes to a long, loud, screeching halt. “What?”

"What d'you mean, 'what'?" Ed asks, stopping in his pacing to throw his arms in the air. “You’re pissed and_\- _and freaked the fuck out and- _done, _with me, and the only reason I’m here right now is because that mark is telling you to-”

“_I’m_ done with _you_?”

“Well yeah,” Ed says, as if it’s the most logical thing in the world. “Why wouldn’t you be? I present in your home- coerce you into sex- fucking _leave a fucking bond bite on you_ when I had no business even asking to bite you in the first place! You were in an unfair, terrifying position! You didn't think you had a choice! And you didn’t tell anyone because you didn’t _want_ it, and you probably packed up all my shit before you scrubbed my scent from the house, and-”

Roy is too shocked to be upset when he realizes that they’ve both got it backwards.

“You’re not angry with me,” he states. He has to make sure he has it correct.

“Why the fuck would _I_ be mad at _you?”_

“Because_ I_ told you to do it!”

“And I fucking knew better!” Ed shouts in exasperation. “It’s- it’s the same as wearing a condom when you fuck an omega or a female body in general so you don’t get them pregnant, right? Except there was an even smaller chance of this happening, but I’m a scientist and I breathe math every fucking day and a small chance is _still_ a chance and _I knew this_, Roy.”

“You were in rut. I was more coherent than you.”

Ed shakes his head. “It’s not an excuse. It wouldn’t have been if I’d knocked someone up and it isn’t one now.”

Roy can’t decide if their mutual misunderstanding leaves him wanting to laugh or cry. It comes out as both, a laughing sort of sob, relief flooding his body as he grabs Ed’s arm to yank him down, then grabs his face and kisses him. Ed kisses back fiercely, lowering himself back down to the couch, lashes wet on Roy’s face, and Roy kisses him and kisses him because it isn’t over and he _can_ and they're both dumbass alphas that clearly deserve each other.

They finally break for air and Roy cups his cheek.

“Ed. I hope this is the last time I have to say this because I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stop myself from screaming it next time. _I wanted all of it_. I wanted you to fuck me, I wanted you to bite me, I wanted to be _yours_.”

“Really?” Ed asks, voice small.

“Of course,” Roy says softly. “Your presentation wasn't this horrible, unbalanced situation you've convinced yourself it was. I still have agency even under duress, and if I hadn't wanted something, I would have said no, and I wouldn't have allowed it to happen. We made it out just fine, mark and all."

Ed still, _still_ looks hesitant to accept Roy's reassurance, and it hurts Roy's heart that he still feels so guilty. "And- my scent being gone? And you not telling anyone?"

"I had to keep your scent from most of the house because I can't get it off of me otherwise, and I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want them to be the first to know.”

Ed's body sags as the tension finally leaves him. He reaches out with a shaking hand to move Roy's collar to the side, enthralled by the sight of the scar. “Then why didn’t you tell _me_?”

“It’s not exactly the kind of thing one can just pick up the phone and say.”

“Not easily but you could’ve, you ass. Or at least had Hawkeye do it.”

“I know an alpha keeping something of this magnitude to themselves is far-fetched, but I honestly didn't tell her.”

Ed gives him a look of such sympathy Roy half expects to receive a pat on the cheek and a 'bless your heart'.

“Roy, I guarantee she knows.”

All of the looks Roy had been receiving from her for the past two months hit him all at once. It dawns on him that she didn't give him the day off because of his unproductive depression, she gave him the day off so he could be home when Ed got there.

He can feel the last of the wall of denial he’d been living behind for months crack and crumble.

“You’re probably right," he says, and he hates Ed just a tiny bit for pointing this out, because now he's going to have to struggle with the knowledge that she already knows when he finally fesses up and tells her. Which, for the record, he still can't wait to do despite the fact that she's going to give him the same look Ed is giving him now. She might even go for the cheek pat.

“I really wish you would have said something. I could have come home, I could have-" Ed pauses, eyes widening in realization. “Oh. You weren’t just being weird, you- you didn't tell me because you thought I might _leave_ you?”

Roy doesn’t look at him and doesn’t say anything.

“You idiot,” Ed breathes.

The next thing Roy knows, he has a lap full of Ed and a face full of golden hair. He sputters and clears his vision to Ed shrugging off his coat and slipping out of his black jacket.

“What are you doing?”

“I fucking want one too,” Ed says as he rucks his tank top loose from his pants. He makes a noise of annoyance when Roy’s hands reach out to stop him, and quickly abandons clothing removal in favor of pressing their bodies as close together as he can get them.

“Ed,” Roy laughs. It’s like trying to fend off an over-zealously loving cat. Block him one way, he just slides along and wiggles in another. “Ed, come on. Hold on a minute.” Roy is finally able to hold him off with a firm hand gripped to each shoulder. “I don’t want you to make a rash decision.”

Ed tugs at his shirt collar. “That’s a little late, donchya think?”

Roy covers the hand at his collar with his own, and squeezes. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to reciprocate. You’re not even eighteen years old. You have your entire life ahead of you.”

Ed stares at him flatly, in the impatient sort of way that demands Roy make his point, and fast.

“What I mean to say is- and I’d like to assume since you’re asking for my mark that you won’t call me a sap, but I know you, so bear with me- I know you’re it for me.”

Ed’s blush starts as a light pink but rapidly darkens.

“And it makes me more than happy and proud to wear your mark. But I’m also fourteen years older than you. I’ve had other relationships. And I don’t want you to wake up a year from now, ten years from now, and feel like you’ve missed out or made a mistake. I’m not going anywhere, whether you have my mark or not. I don’t want you to feel like you _have_ to do this.”

By the time he’s finished, Ed’s cheeks are nearly as red as his lips. “_Ugh_,” he groans, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. “Why do you have to- make me say this.” It looks as if declarations of love cause him physical pain and Roy loves every second of it. “There aren’t many people who would willingly put up with me, and the automail, and scars, and night waking. The constant traveling and knowing Al will always come first.”

Roy starts to think he’s nothing more than a convenient putter-upper with shit, but Ed has always been a little more than blatantly honest, so he lets him keep talking.

“But you- you don’t even- those aren’t obstacles to you. You just see _me_ and I don’t have to explain anything because you already know it all. I can talk to you as an intellectual equal without dumbing everything down, and-” he stops and rubs a hand down his face. Roy thinks that’s all the talk of love Ed can handle for one day, but he finally sums up the strength to continue. “I thought I knew everything there was to know about love. I had my mom. I have Al. I had the Gate force the rest on me. But more than once you’ve proven me wrong. There’s not a chance there’s someone better for me.”

Roy considers the other alpha in his lap, clothes disheveled and face red but eyes determined. He wants to make him his, he wants it so badly and Ed wants it too, but they've just ricocheted back from what they both thought was the end and he needs to make absolutely sure Ed understands just what he's in for.

“We’ll have to keep you close to home for a while,” Roy points out. “Shorter missions, if any at all. Being separated for too long is near crippling. Constant descenting is necessary and incredibly unpleasant.”

Ed nods. “You did it though. You did all of it by yourself so there’s not a chance I can’t do it _with_ you. You said so when I presented, that it wouldn’t be easy. But that hasn’t scared me yet.”

Roy cups Ed’s cheek, searching his eyes for any trace of hesitancy or guilt and finding nothing but his classic tenacity. He sighs in defeat. “Alphonse is going to kill me.”

Ed scoffs. “He’s going to kill _me_ when he finds out what I did first.” He tucks his face into the crook of Roy’s neck, and the proximity makes Roy shiver. “So. Will you? Please?”

Roy reminds himself of what he’s always known. There is nothing typical about Edward Elric.

“I would love to,” he says.

Ed grins against his neck, and before Roy can comprehend why his lap is empty, he’s being pulled to his feet.

It has to be the quietest, shortest, least eventful trek to their bedroom they’ve ever made. Roy freely enters the room and comes to a stop next to the bed, but Ed freezes in the doorway. He opens his mouth, closes it, opens it again.

“You built a nest,” he finally says.

The only aspect of it that Roy finds embarrassing is it isn’t the most beautiful thing to look at - it’s more of a nest of desperation than one of sexual appeal. It had gotten him through one of the worst periods of his life though, so for that it holds a special place for him, and he’s eager to share it with the person he’d made it for.

Roy places a hand on bed, and looks up at his mate. “Are you familiar with the effects of a bond bite?” he asks

Ed nods as he comes to stand next to him. “I just- didn’t realize it could have _all_ the same effects on an alpha.” He runs a hand over his jacket, spread over a pillow, and his eyes wander over the rest of his painstakingly arranged belongings. He clenches his jaw. “You suffered this whole time. I could have done something. I could have come home. I-”

Roy slips a hand into his hair, bringing his face up to kiss him quiet. “We can talk about it later if you want, but let it be for now. Please.”

With the speed in which Ed rids Roy of his clothes, yanking roughly and impatiently enough to send a few buttons pinging to corners of the room from where they'll never return, and then loses his own, Roy assumes he must agree.

They'd had plenty of sex after Ed's presentation, but Roy had only attempted to top him a handful of times with varying results. Some days Ed was fairly agreeable while others he was completely unmanageable, bordering on dangerous, and Roy either had to give up his goal and submit or hold his ground while they eventually reached completion in a rutting mess of tangled limbs and bruises.

They hadn't yet rediscovered the balance that had once allowed sweet and slow, but Roy wouldn't trade the difficulties for anything. Despite the fact that he can never let his guard down, there’s something inexplicably exquisite about being with another alpha. About the way Ed’s body quivers against his hands, how he still can’t execute full control over his dominating instincts. He’s a constant stream of little half-warnings, curls of his lip and growls that tickle Roy’s palms and yellow eyes whose dangerous glare only serves to rile Roy up. He can’t deny that he’s been longing for the same Ed who gave him the mark in the first place, so he lets his back hit the mattress and pulls Ed on top of him to let him work out some of those dominant urges.

Ed eagerly obliges.

He scents Roy aggressively, as if trying to undo all the damage done by descenting, and the older alpha's body shudders in response as Ed presses close to the bond mark. He puts his mouth to it, licks the spot, scrapes his teeth along it, and sucks.

Roy’s plan was to reach for the lube and slick up his fingers while Ed was distracted, but he finds the dexterity required is impossible to harness. Every touch of Ed’s lips and teeth and tongue to the mark makes his body convulse, dragging embarrassingly needy whines from his throat and sending sparks of pleasure tingling straight south. He abandons his plan, and instead grabs Ed’s ass and squeezes, rocking his hips up as Ed grinds down to meet him, his lips trailing up to Roy's jaw.

It leaves Roy free enough to make his move, but he wants to try something else first. He attempts to ease himself up on an elbow, just to see what Ed's reaction will be, and he doesn't disappoint. He catches Roy's shoulder in hand and pushes him back down. Roy tries again, just to push Ed's buttons, and this time Ed slams him down roughly and snarls. It's fun, and Roy laughs like he'd wanted to during Ed's rut because the chances of Ed trying to maim him for it are far slimmer this time around.

Ed still doesn't take to it kindly though, and dips down to hook his teeth right around Roy's windpipe. He doesn't apply any pressure, just holds sharp and steady. It's not only an act of dominance but a test of trust, and Roy freezes while his heart thunders on in some strange mixture of fear and excitement.

He tries to brush his fingers through Ed's bangs, and Ed's response is to pin the offending hand to the bed and close his jaws just a fraction tighter. Fearful of losing both hands - or, only barely more importantly, his air supply - Roy forces himself to relax and wait out whatever sort of limit Ed has set for him.

Soon enough, Ed lets go of both his hand and throat, capturing his lips in a biting kiss, and Roy is finally able to feel for the bottle of lube on the bedside table. With his hands working behind Ed’s back, he squeezes a liberal amount onto his fingers and slides a single slick digit down the crack of Ed’s ass. Ed breaks their kiss, throwing his head back, baring his throat and grinding back against his touch. When Roy's finger slides into him, he dives back in to reclaim Roy’s mouth. He's tight, hot, and trembling, and Roy heads straight for what Ed needs to distract him, reaching and hooking and repeatedly stroking the pad of his finger over the bundle of nerves that prompt Ed to relax. It isn't long before he's whining breathlessly against Roy's mouth and canting his hips back, asking for more without really having to.

With the introduction of a second finger, Ed reaches down to wrap a hand around their cocks and strokes. He milks pearls of precum on the upstroke, coating his palm as he twists it over both heads and slicks his path down. Roy has to relube and curl in on himself a bit to manage finger number three, and he devours Ed’s answering moan. He starts stroking in time with the push of Roy's fingers and Roy isn’t even sure if he realizes he’s doing it. He keeps going, even when Roy’s fingers slip free and he grips Ed’s hips with trembling hands.

“If you- _ah - _want that bite today-”

Ed’s breathy laugh is hot and sweet on his shoulder, and the hand jerking them off reappears in Roy’s hair as Ed kisses him.

“Back or belly, love?” Roy asks. Being on top is the only way to assure he’s going to have the proper angle and leverage to pull off a decent bite.

“Back,” Ed breathes.

Roy knows he should probably warn him, do it gently, carefully, but he can’t help himself. He swipes Ed’s left side out from under him and flips them. Ed’s eyes flash as he goes down and he snarls when he hits the bed. Roy is fast on top of him, pinning his wrists, grinning as Ed glares and bares his teeth.

“You like it,” Roy teases.

“Unfortunately,” Ed grates.

Roy lowers himself and bares his shoulder in offering. Ed doesn’t hesitate. He bites, not hard enough to break the skin, but definitely hard enough to bruise. Again the balance of control shifts, and it’s not easy for Roy to readjust with it despite the fact that he offered. His first instinct is to rip himself from Ed’s jaws and bite him back, and in his resistance he grips Ed’s wrists so hard he’s sure to leave his own set of bruises on his flesh one. He doesn't think they'll ever make it out of these encounters unscathed again.

Ed’s groan rumbles through his shoulder and Roy swears the vibration carries into his bones. He gasps and throbs and grinds their cocks together, slicking a trail across Ed’s stomach.

“Do you want my knot?” he pants.

Ed makes an amused noise and his teeth let go. “What kind of question is that?”

“A necessary one,” Roy answers, because it’s only polite to ask instead of literally thrusting a knot upon someone who probably isn’t expecting one.

Ed’s response is to sit up quickly enough to shoulder check him and send him flailing backward onto the mattress. He absolutely deserved it but still comes up with a snarl, just in time to catch the bottle of lube Ed pitches at him. Ed gives him a cheeky grin, reaches into the bedside drawer, and comes up with the vial of pheromones. He places a few drops on his fingers, locks eyes with Roy, and dabs them around his collarbones with slow precision.

Any irritation Roy had felt about being manhandled dissipates when the scent of omega finally hits him. His mouth starts to water and the bottle of lube slips from his fingers, forgotten.

Ed settles back on the pillows and makes grabby hands at him, and Roy climbs back over top of him with a newfound gentleness. He eases their bodies back together, lowers his head until their noses nearly touch, and pauses.

Ed’s eyes flicker up from where they’d been watching the descent of his mouth, and it’s far from the first time Roy’s been stuck by how utterly incredible he is - eyes like he’s never seen, smoldering in several shades of honey, their lashes so long they fan across his cheeks when they close - but something about this moment is different. The soul within them, looking back at Roy with absolute love and trust, strikes something impossibly deep and almost painful.

Ed smiles in that shy, guarded sort of way Roy rarely sees from him. “What?” he prods.

Roy isn’t even sure of the answer himself. He can’t blame the omega pheromones, because even if they induced the feeling they didn’t _create_ it, and he has nothing else to offer short of going on a tangent of all of the qualities that make Ed extraordinary and how lucky Roy is to bask in his very existence, and that’s sure to ruin the momentum more than Roy already has. So he just dips his face, and Ed’s eyes flutter shut, and Roy presses their mouths together.

Their hormones are still high and lower halves still very much invested in the current situation, and it doesn’t take more than a slide of their hips for their bodily instincts to snatch back control. The initial flood of omega has passed and taken with it that moment of tranquility, and Roy breaks away from Ed’s mouth to bite at his lips, nip his way down his chin and to his neck. Ed’s teeth snap shut with a click, and there's a barely aborted rumble of a warning in his throat despite how he presses the vulnerable region of skin against Roy’s mouth. Roy uses a single canine to scrape his way down to Ed's shoulder where he then tests the placement of his teeth several times, barely applying pressure despite how hard Ed pushes against them.

In typical Ed fashion he soon gets impatient with the too-gentle, borderline teasing attention. He slaps a hand around the sheets and comes up with the abandoned bottle of lube that he shakily pushes into Roy's hand. Equally eager after mapping out just where he'd like to place the mark, Roy does not lose the bottle this time. He slicks himself up while Ed hooks his legs around his waist, and keeps himself in hand as he presses against the entrance to Ed's body.

Their eyes lock. Roy isn't sure if it's the scent of omega, or already having let him work out some aggression, or the promise of a bite, but Ed is far more receptive to their current position than he's been for some time. He gives a little wiggle, heels grinding into Roy’s flanks, pulling him closer, and pulling him in.

His body is tight, burning velvet and trembling with tension, right down to the hands that come up to grip Roy's shoulders. Ed bites his lip and whines and _pulls_, and Roy resists taking him as quickly as Ed tries to convince him he should, gently easing inside of him while flesh and metal heels dig painfully into his back. Ed’s whine turns into a growl as Roy bottoms out, and it’s so thrilling to dominate such a creature, so euphoric that Roy nearly loses control and comes on the spot.

Being a young alpha who hasn’t fucked in two and a half months means Ed is, fortunately, in the same boat. Roy can already feel the beginning swell of the his knot pressed between their bellies, reacting to the omega pheromones he’d placed around his own neck. Holding still is all they can do to barely hold off the inevitable, their heaving chests matching breath for shuddering breath.

Roy buries a hand in Ed's hair and drags his head up to kiss him. Ed bears his body down as Roy digs his toes into the sheets to press just as hard into him, and he doesn't think it's possible he could go any deeper, that they could get any closer, Ed's shaking hands clawing and bruising his back as they just press and gasp and relax, then press, press, press-

Ed’s breaks their kiss, panting, craning his head to the side to bare his neck. “Do it now,” he begs. “Roy, do it, _fuck_, I’m-”

Roy tightens his grip in Ed's hair to hold him still, puts his teeth to his shoulder, and as Ed starts to come, he crushes their bodies together and bites.

Absolutely nothing compares to sinking his teeth into Ed’s skin, the taste of his blood and scent heavy on Roy’s tongue and his wail like a siren’s song, sluicing from his ears straight down to his dick. That coupled with the rush of pheromones - alpha and omega and Ed Ed _Ed_ – has Roy pressing his knot in with the next roll of his hips. Ed’s taken him before, never as an alpha but with memorized ease takes him again, complete with a low litany of broken curses. From there Roy is immobilized, powerless despite supposedly being the one in control, captive to Ed’s body as he clenches so tightly that Roy follows him down, groaning around the teeth hooked in Ed’s neck.

Ed's breaths leave him with such intensity they’re borderline sobs, and Roy feels it too, the corners of his eyes prickling hot with a strange rush of emotion. He knows a bond bite creates as much pleasure as it does pain, but he doesn’t want to let go. He would be happy to stay in this moment for as long as Ed lets him, searing the memory of it into the core of his being, right down to the pressure of his bite and just where their bodies fit together, the feeling of his fingers woven through the tangled halo of Ed's hair and the whimpers that wrack his body.

As the high ebbs off, Roy finally convinces himself to let go. Ed’s mark isn’t as bloody as his had been, and he instinctively sucks on the spot to get more blood to flow. The idea of someone’s blood in his mouth had always been unappealing, but the practice is far different from the theory, and Roy doesn’t hesitate to use his tongue to clean away the ruby red beads as they continue to form. Ed whines and twitches beneath him. The occasional aftershock rolls through their bodies, forcing Roy to pause in his ministrations as they shudder and grind.

The blood flow slows again, and satisfied that his role in its care is complete for the time being, Roy turns his attention to Ed. Missionary isn’t the most comfortable position to wait out a tie, but the thought of maneuvering Ed’s body around his own – of having to part from being pressed to his skin for even a brief time – is more than Roy can fathom. He endures it on a propped elbow, vaguely wondering if his free hand should be wrapped around Ed’s knot instead of stroking it down his cheek and through his sweat-soaked hair. Ed seems too far gone to care as long as Roy continues to murmur praises for taking his knot, his bite, his claim, so blissed-out he struggles to keep his eyes open and on the alpha above him.

In any other case, waiting for a knot to go down would be followed by ample amounts of cuddling - or as Ed would call it, tangled sprawling - but Roy is eager to take care of his mate and he slips from Ed's body as soon as it's possible. They desperately need a bath – they’re both bloody and sticky and Roy is positive Ed wiped a handful of precum in his hair - but Ed is clearly on an endorphin high, body boneless and speech unintelligible, and Roy decides it can wait. He does manage to peel himself away to get some antiseptic for the wound and a warm washcloth. He cleans the bite gently and wipes the mess from Ed's stomach and thighs while Ed watches him, cheeks flushed and eyes half lidded.

When he’s finished, Roy returns to the nest for some of Ed's brand of tangled sprawling. He presses his fingers near the bite and Ed’s mouth twitches. It feels utterly surreal. If someone had told him four months ago that he and Ed would soon have claimed one another, he’s not sure he would have believed it, not only for the simple fact that they’re both alphas, but because it didn’t seem right or even possible for Ed to belong to _anyone_.

Ed’s head lolls his direction, and he grins. “Happy birthday to me,” he slurs, laughing against Roy’s shoulder, clearly quite pleased with himself. Then, suddenly very stern, he says, “This’d better be the only surprise, because if there _is_ a party I'll never forgive you.”

“I was barely able to shower while you were gone. I assure you I lacked any ability to even envision doing that to you.”

Ed continues to give him a hard look, then must decide he’s telling the truth. His eyes flutter shut and for some time they just lay quietly.

After Roy has thoroughly mapped Ed's throat and collarbones with his fingers, Ed stretches and yawns. “Imma make an array tomorrow,” he declares.

“Yeah? Going to take the dent out of my coffee table?”

“I’d take the one out of your head but I’m pretty sure you were born with it,” Ed says, but his hand drifts to Roy’s head as if by unconscious guilt. He plays it off by toying with Roy’s hair. The spot is sore, but Roy doesn't complain. “I wanna make somethin' so neither of us has to use that nasty descenting wash ever again. Shit’s barbaric.”

“An alchemic pheromone remover.”

“Basically.”

They lay in weighted silence as they consider the implications of such an array and just how badly it could go wrong.

“I’d better be real fuckin’ careful,” Ed decides.

“You’d probably better not.”

“It’ll be fine.”

His breath ghosts over Roy’s chest, and silence again falls over them as they simply bask in each other, as if they require skin to skin contact to recharge. And, considering the events of the day and all of those that had let up to it, Roy wouldn't be surprised to find that they actully do.

It’s very faint – so very, very quiet that Roy can feel it more than anything - but his heart thrills when he realizes what it is. He slips a hand over Ed’s heart and the low vibration trickles into his palm.

“You do that a lot now, y’know?” Ed says. The hum breaks briefly for him to speak but resumes when he’s done.

Roy bites back a laugh. “You _do_ realize you’re the one doing it, don’t you?”

He should have just enjoyed it instead of pointing it out because Ed’s head pops up and he stops immediately.

“I am _not_,” he says.

Tempted to argue but intrigued to see if they could find the moment again, Roy simply pulls him close. Ed grumbles something indignant but lays his head back down and wriggles even closer.

It’s impossible to say what does and doesn’t make bond bites take, but the signs Ed exhibits don’t lie. Roy had never purred before he’d been bitten, and the same is true for Ed as well, and Roy can’t help but feel that nature and the universe knew before they did that they were meant for this.

As Ed relaxes he begins to doze off, and then starts to purr again. It's softer, as if he'd consciously been trying to hold it back, but it's still one of the most wonderful things Roy has heard in his life and he doesn't dare ruin it this time. He carefully nuzzles closer to Ed's new mark, and even though it just smells like a mixture of blood and disinfectant he feels the rush again, a pull at the innermost of his being telling him this is exactly where he belongs.

For the first time in two months, two weeks, and six days, Roy feels complete, and with his body curled protectively around Ed's own, he also starts to purr.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to visit me over on [tumblr](https://butbythegrace.tumblr.com/).


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